In a change of professions, Karen Lovelock retired from 30 years as a postal worker to become a church volunteer.

Friday

Oct 17, 2008 at 12:01 AMOct 17, 2008 at 6:00 PM

Clara Kilbourn - The Hutchinson News - ckilbourn@hutchnews.com

Lovelock, of Nickerson, a member of Park Place Christian Church in Hutchinson, is one of hundreds of disaster volunteers in her denomination, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

On Thursday, Lovelock joined a crew of 15 in hanging drywall on the basement walls of a home built in Hutchinson by a Greensburg family whose home was leveled in the May 4, 2007, tornado.

"This is where God calls me to be," Lovelock said.

The Volunteers in Mission group started work in Greensburg two weeks after the tornado and have been there since, said director Carl Zerweck III.

Zerweck serves the denomination as director of their national organization based in Indianapolis.

Lovelock learns something new on every build, she said. She documented her building and repair experience.

"I live in a 100-year-old house and I'm single," she said. "I do it or it doesn't get done."

She goes to bed "very tired" every night, but by the next morning she's ready to go again. She has worked in Mississippi, in Beaumont, Texas, and has been in Greensburg since November.

Against the backdrop of a whir of drills and the pounding of nails, the crew measured and fit the slabs of drywall and called out good-natured messages to one another.

Steve Huston, a retired sixth-grade teacher from Ada, Okla., joined the volunteer cadre and has worked on-and-off in Greensburg since March.

"I'm just giving back," he said.

The majority of the crew changes weekly, Zerweck said. This week's group represents the staff of their Indianapolis headquarters.

Working together in a closet, Anne Marie Moyars and Elizabeth McDougall, both of Indiana, started the day with little experience.

They finished one piece of drywall and were ready to add a second when McDougall stood back to inspect their work.

"Not too bad for the first time," she said as she rapped the wall with her knuckles.

After a final day Friday in Greensburg, their VIM effort is moving to Texas and "the golden triangle" of Beaumont, Texas City and Port Arthur, ravaged by the devastation of Hurricane Ike - a magnification of Greensburg, Zerweck said.

Churches of their denomination serve as hosts to the crews. The volunteers sleep on the floor and make their meals in the church kitchen.

Volunteers arriving on the job have a range of skills, from a lot to none at all. They begin their workday with a devotion and end it with a worship service, Zerweck said.

"All we ask is that they come with a willingness," he said. "That's how we work miracles."

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